An Introduction To

Ciceroni Travel

The long tradition of cultural travel peaked during the era of ‘The Grand Tour’. Travellers from all over Europe and beyond flocked to Italy to view the monuments of antiquity and to discover with excitement the defining moments in the evolution of architecture, painting and the decorative arts. Many visitors had the advantage of relying on the knowledge of a ‘Cicerone’ who was a cultivated, learned and, if lucky, companionable guide. The role of these ‘Ciceroni’ was to explain not just the general background to the places visited, but to bring to life the rich cultural and artistic heritage of each monument and site. Simply put, it was a graceful and leisured way of acquiring knowledge and visual stimulation without the stress of organising the detail oneself. It is this tradition of cultural travel that CICERONI Travel tours are designed to recreate, albeit adapted for modern times.

So how did we begin? In 1994 Tom Duncan was asked to take a number of groups to explore Ireland’s artistic heritage. These visits led to invitations to organise similar tours more widely in Europe and CICERONI Travel was formed. We now escort and guide participants to destinations within the British Isles, Ireland and Italy, together with many other countries in Europe, the Mediterranean Basin, the Caribbean and North America.